Details Emerge of New School Bussing Deal to Avert Crisis in Lakewood

2
>>Follow Matzav On Whatsapp!<<

school busLakewood, NJ – News that approximately 11,000 public and non-public school children in Lakewood were to lose school busing for the coming school year sent residents into a tizzy, as askanim scrambled to deal with the fallout of that startling revelation earlier this month.

That decision was finalized after a New Jersey monitor ruled that the district would no longer provide courtesy busing, and even mandated busing would suffer due to a budget shortfall.

Now, Matzav.com has learned that the Lakewood School District and the State have reached a tentative deal with the private schools of Lakewood to ensure that busing will be provided for all public and private schools in Lakewood.

“The schools are giving in a tremendous amount,” an insider tells Matzav.com, “but overall, the atmosphere has been very positive and both sides are working together very well. Hopefully, this turns a new page between the private schools and districts – a very valuable development.”

The initial decision to scrap all courtesy busing would have meant that all children who did not meet the two-and-a-half mile distance requirement would not receive busing. [Elementary school children living two miles away from school would have still received state-mandated busing, as would have high school students living two-and-a-half miles away. All other students would have been left to fend for themselves in regard to getting to and from school each day.]

The schools had been told that even for mandated services, there would have been only one dismissal per school. This has been averted with this new agreement.

Thanks to round-the-clock efforts by various individuals – including some very prominent out-of-town askanim and baalei chessed – on many different fronts, a deal to be finalized will prevent what local officials called a “traffic nightmare.” The addition of tens of thousands of children in private vehicles each day would have meant thousands of more vehicles on Lakewood’s already clogged roadways.

“What until now was a traffic nightmare would have degenerated into something far worse,” an official told Matzav.com.

The details of the deal have not been finalized, but Matzav.com has learned exclusively, and is reporting first, that the deal will likely have drop-off for all boys schools starting at 8:30 a.m. and drop-off for all girls schools ending at 9:15 a.m.

“The schools are doing this to make it work for the whole town, public and non-public students alike,” an insider told Matzav.com.

Under the new deal, the schools will be permitted to conduct multiple dismissals, but they will be more staggered in timing than they were during this past school year.

Additional details will be reported as they are finalized and an official announcement is issued by State and local officials.

{Gavriel Sitrit-Matzav.com Newscenter}


2 COMMENTS

  1. not fair
    the state owes us money, why should we compromise?
    we should hold a public rally on route 9 to gets christies attention
    and get the funds due us
    there is nothing to thank the askanim for giving in… [as usual]
    next year we are back to thw same proeblem and last year we also heard all theses ideas.

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here